Leaves rather short, 3–9 in. long, ⅛–⅕ in. broad, thin, flat, acute, glabrous, timely scaberulous on the midrib beneath; ligules veryshort, reduced to a mere rim; sheaths thin, usually finely pubescent. Panicle narrow, slender, lax, branched at the base, 3–9 in. long; branches erect, capillary. Spikelets narrow, about ⅔ in. long without the awns, on filiform pedicels. Two outer glumes minute, persistent, many times smaller than the 3rd and 4th, and separated from them by an elongated bearded portion of the rhachilla; 3rd and 4th long and narrow, produced into slender awns, the 4th longer than the 3rd, its awn often more than 1 in. long, nerves 5–7, with the awns rough and scabrid. Flowering glume much shorter, acuminate but not awned, faintly 7-nerved. Palea linear. Lodicules large. Stamens 4.—Hook. f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 289; Handb. N.Z. Fl. 320; Benth. Fl. Austral. vii. 552; Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 2.
North Island: Not uncommon throughout, but most plentiful in lowland districts. South Island, Stewart Island: In various localities, chiefly near the sea. Sea-level to 2000 ft.
Widely distributed in Australia, ranging from Queensland to Tasmania and West Australia. It is a most valuable pasture and lawn grass, deserving of far more attention than has hitherto been given to it.
2. M. avenacea, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 320.—Culms tufted, tall, stout, erect or spreading, compressed, glabrous, 1–4 ft. high. Leaves mostly towards the base of the culms and shorter than them, broad, flat, ¼–½ in. diam., glabrous, striate, scaberulous on the margins and principal veins; sheaths long, smooth, deenly striate; ligules broad, bearded at the sides. Panicle 1–2 ft. long, sparingly branched, compound, lax, nodding, pale-green; branches long, slender, almost capillary, angled, scaberulous. Spikelets very narrow, about ⅓ in. long without the awns, usually 1 in. with them; pedicels slender, thickened above. Two lowest glumes small, many times less than the 3rd and 4th, not separated from them by a conspicuous interspace as in M. stipoides, 1-nerved, obtuse, sometimes notched at the tip, the outer one half the length of the 2nd; 3rd and 4th long, narrow, empty, 5–7-nerved, rough and scabrous, hairy at the base, produced into long awns. Flowering glume much shorter than the 4th, acuminate but not awned, faintly 5–7-nerved. Palea linear, acuminate, 1-nerved. Stamens 2.—Buch. N.Z. Grasses, t. 3. Diplax avenacea, Raoul, Choix, 11, t. 3; Hook, f. Fl. Nov. Zel. i. 289.
North and South Islands, Stewart Island: Abundant in woods throughout. Sea-level to 2500 ft. December–January.
3. M. polynoda, Hook. f. Handb. N.Z. Fl. 320.—Culms 3–8 ft. long, much branched, straggling, often scrambling among shrubs and bushes, hard, solid, terete, as thick as a goose-quill at the base, quite glabrous, conspicuously swollen at the nodes. Leaves numerous, rather distant, the lowermost reduced to sheaths, upper
